Chapter 21
I see the lights before I hear the dogs, the red and blue glowing in the night sky, as I break through the trees. My heart sinks deep in my chest, a U.S. Marshal leading a dog on a leash around to the back porch of my house.
The dog lets out a bark, the kind I recognize as hitting a scent.
“It’s hot!” the handler calls out.
Fuck. Oh fuck.
Every instinct I have screams for me to turn around and run back to Noah, to get him out of here—to help him down the bluff to the shores below. However, if I do that, I can’t drive him out of here, either.
Please be running, Noah. Please hear them coming for you.
“Hey!” Someone suddenly shouts. “Hands up! Hands up!”
I whip my head around the yard, expecting to see Noah from somewhere, but I don’t. And by the time I reconcile that thought, I realize they’re talking to me, guns drawn.
I raise my hands, slowly and intentional, terror ripping through my body.
“Get those hands up!” one of the Marshals shouts, heading toward me with his gun still pointed in my direction.
“Okay, okay,” I choke out, my entire body trembling from the sudden cold. “I’m unarmed. Don’t shoot. I live… I live here.” Sort of.
The red and blue light bounces off the trees, slicing through the darkness as the shadows of officers make their way toward me. The wind carries a sharp bite, and the growl from the dog vibrates under my feet, but I do my best to steady myself.
The longer I distract them, the more time it gives Noah.
“Ma’am, keep your hands where we can see them!” one of the Marshals shouts, as he finally gets within a few feet of me. He lowers his weapon, but I leave my hands in the air, just in case.
I breathe in deeply, trying to calm the way my pulse is pounding in my ears. “I’m… I’m not sure what’s happening right now.” I eye the closest Marshal, and then the other, who’s got the dog—and is barking at me.
“Name,” the Marshal demands, eyes boring into my skull.
“Ruth Iverson,” I say, swallowing hard, teeth chattering now. “Like I said, I live here. Well, I did live here… I’m here… I…”
The handler’s eyes flick toward the woods behind the house. His dog sniffs the ground and growls low, pulling against the leash like it wants to run. My stomach drops. If they follow that scent… how long will it take them to find him?
“Ma’am, has anyone else been on the property tonight? Your disabled mother is in the house.”
I force my shoulders to slump, and lower my hands, which they watch with attention that leaves me uneasy. “No,” I whisper. “It’s just me and my mom. I was looking for my dog… I thought I let him out—”
“Dog’s in the house,” the Marshal snaps.
The other one with the dog narrows his eyes. “We’ve found a body in the lake. Local man. You need to be escorted to the house and stay put.”
I freeze, the news actually surprising me. “A body?” My heart hammers against my ribcage so hard I’m sure they can hear it.
“Yeah, not far from here,” the Marshal barks at me, but doesn’t specify.
“Sir,” the handler says to his partner as the dog jerks at the end of the leash, “scent’s coming from the direction of that area.”
Oh god. Did Noah do it? Is it the man in camo? My head spins, but I try to keep my face neutral.
“You’re certain you haven’t seen anyone?” the Marshal without the gun presses, and my eyes jump past him…
More law enforcement materializing.
I force my voice calm, voice cracking just a little. “I—I saw a man in camo yesterday, I think. He scared me. I ran.”
“And so you went back to the woods in the middle of the night?”
Oh shit. I swallow hard. “I was looking for my dog. People trespass all the time.”
“Like your childhood neighbor? Thomas Noah Peterson?”
I blink a few times. “Who?”
The handler shakes his head. “Take her to the house and let someone else worry about this. Trail’s too hot to ignore.”
“I’ll go to the house,” I say quickly. “I’m freezing.”
They both eye me, and then the dog breaks into a wild bark, bounding at the end of the leash.
“We need to conduct a search of the property. Get yourself to the house and stay put.” With that, they jet off toward the woods, and before I even make ten steps further, at least ten more bodies break into a jog to join them, their flashlights causing a strange cadence.
I keep expecting someone to say something to me, but no one does, and so I make my way back toward the house, eyeing the inside through the back kitchen window. I see my mother sitting there at the table, and a police officer standing over her, clearly asking questions.
I can’t get my stuff. I’ll have to leave without it.
I take a deep breath, letting the cold cut through me as I head for my car. My thighs ache from the moment with Noah in the ravine, and the one before then, too. He thinks that this is over between us, but it can’t be.
It can’t.
The panic makes my chest ache and my head go light, but somehow, I make it to my SUV, pulling open the driver’s side door. I have no idea if I’ll be able to get down to the docks, the only place I can think Noah might run. Anywhere else is going to get him onto a main road.
And I’m sure there’ll be law enforcement there.
I exhale slowly, and then start the engine. My hands lower slowly, and I take a mental inventory of what I have—letters, wallet, blanket. That’s it. That’s all I can leave with.
My gut twists with fear and dread, the mixture making my stomach nauseous, as I put the SUV in reverse, and make my way down the driveway. No one stops me.
Well, not until I reach the end.
There, blocking my path is a sheriff’s vehicle.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
The deputy walks up to my window, and motions for me to lower the window. “What are you doing?” he asks the moment I give him an inch of clearance.
“I have to watch my cousin’s daughter. I’m babysitting while she works. You can search my car or whatever.” I make it a point to sound annoyed.
He walks down the side of my Pathfinder, peering in through the windows. Obviously, there’s nothing there to find. Noah isn’t there, unfortunately.
“Go ahead,” he barks at me, waving me onward and then turning back to look at the main search party near the house.
I smash the gas, and careen forward. Red and blue lights slice the trees behind me one last time. I force the SUV down the mess of a road. Gravel crunches, and it feels like it takes forever to make it to the overgrown side road, leading to the old dock.
Please be alive. Please give me a chance. Please.